IN the age of digital animation and computer special effects, Hayao Miyazaki is a purist.

The 67-year-old Oscar-winning master animator known for his hand-drawn movies said in a newspaper interview on Sunday he hasn't seen any of the major digitally animated films in the last two decades.

'I can't stand modern movies. The images are too weird and eccentric for me,' Miyazaki told Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post in an interview to promote his latest movie, 'Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.'

Miyazaki said his recruits are tested in a boot camp where mobile phones, iPods and other electronic devices are banned.

'Young people are surrounded by virtual things,' Miyazaki was quoted as saying. 'They lack real experience or life and lose their imagination. Animators can only draw from their own experience of pain and shock and emotions.' But the president of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, a former Disney executive, was quoted as saying the studio is open to computer animation.

'I don't shut the door on digital technology either,' Koji Hoshino said. 'Just because 'Ponyo' was 100 per cent drawn doesn't mean we're stuck with that approach. My job is to come up with the best approach to make the most of Ghibli and try to come up with those untapped opportunities.' Miyazaki's credits include the Oscar-winning 'Spirited Away,' 'Howl's Moving Castle,' 'Princess Mononoke,' 'Kiki's Delivery Service' and 'My Neighbor Totoro'. -- AP
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